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Midyear funding finds Justus-Tiawah in lead

Justus-Tiawah Schools will receive a 5.40 percent increase in state aid for the second half of the fiscal year based on growing enrollment numbers and available local funding.

This pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school has seen one of the most dramatic increases in student population in the county. At the beginning of the school year, Justus-Tiawah counted 45 new enrollees out of the 548 students. Located east of Claremore, just outside the city limits on State Highway 20, Justus-Tiawah services a school district with growing rural residential developments immediately north and east of Highway 20, as well as south and east of 20 along Highway 88.

Generally, if a district receives a significant increase in state aid, it is due to an increase in enrollment or a decrease in local revenue, said Shelly Hickman, a Department of Education spokeswoman.

The 5.40 percent increase in funding equals an additional $74,369 for the Justus-Tiawah school district.

Foyil School District will receive a 2.57 percent positive adjustment in state funding equalling an addtional $81,679.

Overall Oklahoma schools will receive $26.3 million more in state aid than originally projected, but the money will not come from funds appropriated by the Legislature, education officials said.

Nearly all of the money will come from a reserve fund the Department of Education is required to maintain.The Legislature appropriated $2.3 billion for public schools in the fiscal year that started July 1, up $195 million, or 9 percent, from last year.

“By law, 1.5 percent of the total state aid appropriation is held in reserve for the first half of the year,” Hickman said. “The department is now allocating the 1.5 percent that has been held in reserve for the second half; that 1.5 percent amounts to approximately $26.3 million.”

Adjustments to state aid allocations are made in January, when officials have a better idea about schools’ enrollment and local funding. Districts are given a projection of their state aid in July, using information from the previous year.

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